The Hanafi Jurist Abū’l-Fatḥ al-Walwālijī and His Work al-Fatāwā al-Walwālijiyya

Abstract

Abū’l-Fatḥ al-Walwālijī (d. 540/1146), a Ḥanafī jurist, imam, teacher, qāḍī and scholar, was an important Muslim scholar who lived in the Tokharistan region attached to Balkh. His al-Fatāwā al-Walwālijiyya, composed in the late fifth/eleventh and early sixth/twelfth centuries, is known to have been highly influential during the Abbasid period and especially in the Ottoman state. Al-Walwālijī studied with leading scholars—such as Abū Muḥammad al-Qaṭāwānī (d. 506/1112), Abū Muʿīn al-Nasafī (d. 508/1115), Muḥammad b. Aḥmad b. ʿAlī al-Kazzāz (d. 520/1126) and Ṣadr al-Shahīd ʿUmar b. ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz (d. 536/1141)—which contributed to his breadth across the Islamic sciences. Considering knowledge a trust, he trained notable students, including Abū Saʿd ʿAbd al-Karīm b. Muḥammad al-Samʿānī (d. 562/1166) and Iftikhār al-Dīn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib al-Ḥalabī (d. 616/1219). Although not a prolific author, only two works are attributed to him by name—al-Fatāwā al-Walwālijiyya and al-Amālī fī’l-fiqh—of which only the former survives. The extant al-Fatāwā al-Walwālijiyya is known to have made significant contributions to the Ḥanafī fatwā and nawāzil literature and functions as a rich compendium of fiqh. Frequent references to it in the epitomes, commentaries, supercommentaries and fatwā collections of eminent later scholars—such as Abū’l-Barakāt al-Nasafī (d. 710/1310), Sirāj al-Dīn ʿUmar al-Miṣrī (d. 1005/1596) and Ibn ʿĀbidīn (d. 1252/1836)—attest to its importance. Regrettably, the work has received little dedicated study in the Islamic world and has remained almost a concealed treasure. This article examines al-Walwālijī’s scholarly life and his fatwā collection, identifying his contributions to Islamic law, particularly to the fatwā and nawāzil tradition.